UFC commentator and Light Heavyweight contender “Lionheart” Anthony Smith recently made headlines in the MMA community for sharing his opinion about how he feels 40-year old UFC Lightweight (155-pound) contender Jim Miller could possibly defeat former UFC Heavyweight Champion and WWE legend Brock Lesnar in a MMA fight.
After making the comments on the “Believe You Me” podcast that he co-hosts with UFC Hall of Fame legend, former UFC Middleweight Champion and fellow UFC commentator Michael “The Count” Bisping, Miller was asked for his reaction to it during this week’s official UFC Fight Night: Ankalaev vs. Walker 2 pre-fight press conference.
“The mentality has to be there,” he said when talking about the importance of confidence going into a fight. “When you start walking to the Octagon, it is the loneliest place on the planet. I firmly believe, in training, you’re an up-and-comer. Training like the guy you’re fighting is better than you and doing more than you and doing it better than you are. The moment it’s fight day, you have to be the most confident person on the planet.”
Miller continued, “Yeah, it’d be scary as sh*t, but I’m going to walk to that Octagon, hopefully knowing my bank account is going to get a big bump, like, ‘Hey, we’re going to take this.’ I’ve trained with plenty of heavyweights through the years. My team now is a little smaller than me. I don’t like to bring up, training is training, I’m not a fan of keeping score. I’ve trained with plenty of heavyweight world champion grapplers, and I’ve subbed them. I know that if I isolate something, I could kimura Brock Lesnar, I know that I could. I can lift enough, I can deadlift over 500 pounds, I can straighten the guy’s arm, he can’t single arm curl 500 pounds. It’s about isolating. It’s gonna suck, I don’t want to be underneath him. I appreciate the push, yeah, we’ll take it, 50/50.”
Jim Miller (36-17-0, 1 NC) takes on Gabriel Benítez (23-11-0) on the main card of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night: Ankalaev vs. Walker 2 event on ESPN from the UFC Apex facility, in Enterprise, Nevada. Serving as the headline bout on the show is a Light Heavyweight rematch between number seven-ranked contender Johnny Walker (21-7-0) and number three-ranked Magomed Ankalaev (18-1-1).
Jim Miller reacts to Anthony Smith saying he has a 50/50 chance against Brock Lesnar pic.twitter.com/WZVAFtCAsF
— MMA Mania (@mmamania) January 10, 2024
Here's one I wrote up on #MMA 155 lb. legend @JimMiller_155 at #UFCVegas84 presser agreeing w/ #UFC commentator/fighter @lionheartasmith's comments on the @BYMPod w/ @bisping that he could beat former Heavyweight champ & #WWE legend #BrockLesnar in a fight#WrestlingCommunity https://t.co/SCh8Y4HBwt pic.twitter.com/LJ4mshAzuq
— Matt Boone (@MattBoone0709) January 11, 2024
(H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.)
